


Disrespect

by Elisexyz



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: Bromance, Gen, Harvey being Harvey, Punching, protective!Mike, spitting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-11
Updated: 2016-11-11
Packaged: 2018-08-27 08:38:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,194
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8394817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elisexyz/pseuds/Elisexyz
Summary: When a client died, it was usually a tragedy.

It obviously had very little to do with Harvey caring about said client: his main problem was that the majority of his rich, company owners clients had the tendency to pass their business on to their offspring. And said offspring usually lacked brains.
Or the one in which a client blatantly disrespects Harvey and Mike gets unexpectedly mad.





	

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta reader, so I apologize for the mistakes you'll probably find in here.  
>  I imagine the setting as somewhere after 1x05, so Mike is still pretty shaken by the whole Trevor thing and the guys chasing him at the firm, and he is also going through a 'Oh, Harvey, Harvey, my saviour, my mentor, my everything, I am so grateful' phase. Which we all know he'll basically never grow out of. You can find me [here on Tumblr](http://heytheredeann.tumblr.com), if you want.   
> Enjoy!

When a client died, it was usually a tragedy.

It obviously had very little to do with Harvey caring about said client: his main problem was that the majority of his rich, company owners clients had the tendency to pass their business on to their offspring. And said offspring usually lacked brains.

Mr. Healy was not different: his father had been a very smart and capable man, with his head well-adjusted on his shoulders, business acumen _and_ a very pleasant habit of actually _listening_ to Harvey’s advice. And yet, the man had had to ruin whatever good opinion Harvey had of him by dying and leaving his son in charge of the company.

Joshua was young and arrogant: he liked money but took it for granted. He had grown up getting anything he wanted from his dad, so he seemed to be convinced that no matter what he did, money would still be there. He thought himself to be a great businessman, and that’s why Harvey was having an hard time convincing him that signing a deal to buy a company that was going to fail in no time – Joshua was convinced that he could bring it back to life – and give up a small but important part of his business was _stupid_.

Of course, Harvey couldn’t exactly use those words, but he could at least allow himself the satisfaction of _thinking_ them.

As Joshua talked, hands in his pockets and a smug smile on his face, Harvey spared some glances for his associate, who looked just as pleased as him by their client’s display of business skills: Mike was clearly trying to hide how much of an idiot he thought the guy was, but he couldn’t help rolling his eyes from time to time and even narrowing his eyebrows in disbelief.

Fortunately, Joshua wasn’t paying any attention to Mike, so his opinion went unnoticed. Not that he was taking Harvey’s in consideration, though: he did listen to him when he spoke, but he didn’t hide how incompetent he thought Harvey was compared to him. The idiot even said: “But you are an attorney, what would you know about my business?”

Harvey had more than once politely reminded him that, actually, he did know a lot about _his father’s_ business, because he had been working by Mr. Healy’s side for a very long time – while Joshua was busy getting drunk or laid in some European city, drinking expensive wine and giggling like the idiotic boy he was; Harvey wished he could have added that last part.

Harvey could show a lot of patience with his clients, he was a professional, after all, and he prided himself with how good he was at keeping his emotions in check, but after what felt like _hours_ of debating with Mr. Healy Jr about that damn deal, his tone became a little harsher, his expression more annoyed and his eyes more judgemental.

“With all due respect, Mr. Healy, I really think you should take into account how _new_ you are to the field.” Harvey pointed out. Words like ‘stupid’ and ‘unexperienced’ would have been more accurate than the expression ‘new to the field’, but that company did bring good money to the firm, so he avoided it. For now. That boy was pushing him.

“New?” Joshua echoed, outraged. “Who do you think you are?”

Harvey opened his mouth to speak, sensing that the thing was going south far too quickly, but he was interrupted: “You think you can come in here and tell me how to rule _my_ company? _I_ am _your_ boss, so you are going to bow your head and shut the fuck up.”

Harvey barely had the time to register the disgusted grimace on his face, before Joshua was spitting on his goddamn cheek.

Harvey was left speechless for a moment, his hand distractingly reaching for his face to wipe the saliva away as he realised that that idiotic little boy had just decided that _spitting_ on him would have been something admissible. Harvey wanted nothing more than to punch him into knowing his goddamn place, but just when he was deciding if the satisfaction was worth losing all that money and risking Jessica’s wrath, Mike jumped on their client, punching him with a strength that Harvey wouldn’t really have guessed he had.

“ _How dare you?”_ Mike was yelling at the idiot who was now on the ground, blood in his mouth and a shocked expression on his face. Harvey could see part of Mike’s face and he still looked pissed as Hell, so he decided to step in and drag his associate away from their client, before Joshua decided to find new representation and sue Mike’s ass for physical assault.

As Mike glared at the guy, Harvey finally realized what exactly had just happened. Or rather, he had realized it before, but it was only in that moment that he had the time to think it over.

The first thing that he felt was annoyance, followed by outrage: Mike had just caused them a whole lot of trouble _he_ would have had to solve, and what was he thinking, anyway? Did he believe that Harvey couldn’t take care of himself? Where did he get the impression that Harvey would have needed him to fight his battles for him?

But then, as Mike breathed heavily under his hands and shot death glares at Joshua, who was babbling about disrespect and money and complaints, part of Harvey suggested that he might just have done it to have Harvey’s back. It might have been just a show of loyalty, no ulterior motives, no hidden insults. A pleasant warm feeling invaded Harvey’s chest as he took this possibility into account, because it really didn’t happen that often that people got protective of him – he didn’t need them to, he was good at taking care of himself – and it was kind of _nice_. Kind of.

 

 

-

 

“ _So you_ punched _him?”_ Jessica asked. Her call had arrived after a long, silent ride back to the city. When his phone had rung, Harvey had asked Ray to pull over, handing Mike some money and telling him to go buy himself and Ray a coffee.

The kid had obeyed without question, which spoke volumes about how worried he was about that whole thing. Harvey had even seen him shooting concerned glances at Jessica’s name on Harvey’s phone.

“He wasn’t going to back away from his deal, his company would have been destroyed and we would have lost the money anyway, eventually.” Harvey argued. Joshua had immediately called Jessica to complain, but fortunately he had seemed to forget to mention who exactly punched him, which had allowed Harvey to take the blame.

It wasn’t a noble gesture, not really, more like a calculated risk: if Jessica had known that Mike had been the one punching the client, she probably would have fired him on the spot, but Harvey had much better chances of survival here. It was only logical for him to take the blame. And, after all, he was responsible for Mike.

“ _I don’t care, Harvey. You screwed up big time_.” Jessica insisted.

“Well, he spat on my face after saying bullshit for our whole meeting, you’ll excuse me if I was a little fed up.” Harvey replied, annoyed. “If you ask me, we are better off without him around.”

“ _I’m not asking you_.” Jessica said. “ _And I’m letting this one go, on one condition_.”

“Shoot.”

“ _Two words_.” Jessica challenged him, and Harvey could have sworn that she was smirking. Which made him immediately realized where she was getting at.

“Oh, come on!” He said.

“ _Pro bono_.” Jessica confirmed.

Harvey rolled his eyes, annoyed. Well, at least he wouldn’t have had to make any special effort to make Mike do it all for him: the punishment belonged to the kid anyway, it was only fair of him, as a mentor, to teach him a lesson about consequences.

 

When Harvey joined them into the bar, Ray nodded at him and went back to the car.

Mike was leaning against the counter, biting his bottom lip. “Was she mad?” He asked, hesitantly, after Harvey had ordered himself a cup of coffee.

“Not too much.” Harvey shrugged.

“Am I fired?” Mike asked again. Harvey could sense the fear in his voice without any problems, even if the kid wasn’t looking at him in the eye.

“No. But you should learn to rule your emotions better: you can’t go around hitting clients.”

Mike’s head shot up, any trace of fear disappeared as he said: “ _He spat on your face!”_ with the most incredulous tone, as if he couldn’t believe that Harvey hadn’t taken that into account before making his argument.

Harvey rolled his eyes. “I know. I was there.”

“I am sure that if he had done it to Jessica you would have knocked him on his ass too.” Mike pointed out. Harvey couldn’t really deny that, because he had the deepest respect for Jessica and he owed her a lot, he wasn’t sure he could have sat still as some idiot disrespected her so blatantly. Not that she would have needed the chivalry.

“If he had done that to Jessica,” He said. “she would have obliterated him before I could even blink.”

“Are you saying she’s tougher than you?” Mike smirked, amused.

Harvey was reluctant to admitting that the honest answer to that would have probably been something along the lines of ‘yeah, a little’.

“I’m saying she doesn’t tolerate any disrespect.”

“And _you_ do?” Mike raised his eyebrows.

“Well,” Harvey replied. “I was trying to decide if that moron was worth it, when you decided to go all Avenger on him.”

“There wasn’t much to think about. I know you know he was an idiot and deserved it.” Mike replied, confidently. Harvey didn’t answer, because they both knew that Mike was right and that neither of them was actually sorry for what had happened.

“You know, I was really sure that Jessica would have fired me.” Mike chuckled. Harvey couldn’t blame him for that thought: if Jessica had known who exactly had thrown the punch, she probably wouldn’t have been as forgiving as she had been. “What’s my punishment, by the way?”

“A bunch of pro bono work.” Harvey shrugged. He probably would have had to warn the kid to never talk about this whole thing again: he couldn’t risk him telling anyone who had actually thrown that punch. But he couldn’t randomly order him not to do, or Mike would have probably questioned him on why it was so important. It had to sound like a natural part of the conversation.

“Really?” Mike frowned. “That sounds more like a punishment for- Wait a second.” Harvey could almost hear Mike’s brain struggling to think hard and connect the dots. He was tempted to throw a comment about how painful it was to witness such process. “You took the blame, didn’t you?” Mike realized.

Harvey rolled his eyes. “I didn’t _take_ the blame. You are my associate and I am responsible for you. You screw up, I screw up. End of story.” He was pretty sure they had had that conversation before.

Mike stared at him, grinning slightly. If he had tried to twist his words to make it sound like he cared, _Harvey_ would have taken a swing at _him_ this time.

Fortunately, Mike in the end seemed to like living, because he asked: “Does this mean that you’ll do all the work?”

“Not a chance.” Harvey immediately replied. “It would have a negative educational impact on you. You have to learn that your actions have consequences.”

Mike huffed, but he didn’t reply. Harvey was sure that he was feeling pretty guilty about Harvey telling Jessica that he had been the one to punch their client. Which was stupid: Harvey hadn’t lied, he really was responsible for his associate, especially considering that he had decided to hire him in spite of his lack of degree. It was natural that he would answer for his actions in front of the managing partner.

“I’m not sorry, you know.” Mike said.

“Luckily you don’t have to apologize.” Harvey replied. “And you’re right: he was a dick.”

Mike smiled. “Yeah, he was. But my point was that he had no right to treat you like that and that I am not sorry for defending you.”

“I don’t need protecting, tough guy.” Harvey replied, realizing far too late that his slight smile and his tone was too similar to the one he used to reserve for his little brother. He hoped Mike hadn’t noticed that slip.

“I know.” Mike shrugged. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna stand by you.”

Harvey rolled his eyes, trying to cover how much he actually _liked_ that display of loyalty and how warm it made him feel. “Let’s go back to the firm, you have a lot of work waiting for you.” He announced.

They paid for their coffees and, when it was time to head towards the door, Harvey put a hand on Mike’s shoulder, as if to guide him towards the exit.

 


End file.
